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Facing Reality
A sixties classic before the sixties!
In this celebrated "underground classic", also known as "C. L. R. James's most anarchist book", the renowned author of The Black Jacobins, History of Pan-African Revolt and Beyond a Boundary examines the practical process of social revolution in the modern world. Inspired by the October 1956 Hungarian workers' revolution against Stalinist oppression, as well as U.S. workers' "wildcat" strikes (against Capital and the union bureaucracies), James and his co-authors looked ahead to the rise of new mass emancipatory movements by African Americans and anti-colonialist/anti-imperialist currents in Africa and Asia. Virtually alone among the radical texts of the time, Facing Reality also rejected modern society's mania for "conquering nature", and welcomed women's struggles "for the new relations between the sexes".
First published in 1958 by a tiny group of James's supporters in Detroit, Facing Reality was popularized by the Chicago Rebel Worker group, Solidarity Bookshop, and other anti-authoritarians all through the 1960s. Later taken up by the SDS journal Radical America in its early IWW/surrealist-oriented period, Facing Reality became - like the works of Herbert Marcuse and E. P. Thompson - one of the most discussed and debated books of revolutionary theory in the late 20th century.
This new 21st-century edition includes a new introduction by James's longtime friend, John. H Bracey, situating the book in its 1950s/60s context, and accenting its continued relevance in our time.
In this celebrated "underground classic", also known as "C. L. R. James's most anarchist book", the renowned author of The Black Jacobins, History of Pan-African Revolt and Beyond a Boundary examines the practical process of social revolution in the modern world. Inspired by the October 1956 Hungarian workers' revolution against Stalinist oppression, as well as U.S. workers' "wildcat" strikes (against Capital and the union bureaucracies), James and his co-authors looked ahead to the rise of new mass emancipatory movements by African Americans and anti-colonialist/anti-imperialist currents in Africa and Asia. Virtually alone among the radical texts of the time, Facing Reality also rejected modern society's mania for "conquering nature", and welcomed women's struggles "for the new relations between the sexes".
First published in 1958 by a tiny group of James's supporters in Detroit, Facing Reality was popularized by the Chicago Rebel Worker group, Solidarity Bookshop, and other anti-authoritarians all through the 1960s. Later taken up by the SDS journal Radical America in its early IWW/surrealist-oriented period, Facing Reality became - like the works of Herbert Marcuse and E. P. Thompson - one of the most discussed and debated books of revolutionary theory in the late 20th century.
This new 21st-century edition includes a new introduction by James's longtime friend, John. H Bracey, situating the book in its 1950s/60s context, and accenting its continued relevance in our time.
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
C.L.R. James
68 books394 followersC. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution and the classic book on sport and culture, Beyond a Boundary. His play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History was recently discovered in the archives and published Duke University Press.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 21, 2019
"There is no need for these shop floor organizations to be formally organized. As soon as the men in a department know one another and go through the work together, they are organized."
"The idea that the emancipation of the workers will be the work of the workers themselves is the literal and total truth. It is not enough to say that the working class alone has the necessary force to realize its emancipation, as if the working class were the steam of an engine with intellectuals as mechanics and engine drivers. The reality is that it is the working class alone which is able to produce the organization, the forms and ideas which this emancipation demands."
"It is not the business of the Marxist organization to invent what Marx scornfully called recipes for the cookshops of the future. It is sufficient to watch carefully what the workers are actually doing, and what they are aiming at, and to draw the conclusions."
"Social upheavals bring out what already exists in society, even though only in embryonic form, or as aspiration. But they exist. It is the task of the Marxist organization to find them."
"Theory is the distillation of history and it is only by understanding the present that one is able to understand the past."
"The idea that the emancipation of the workers will be the work of the workers themselves is the literal and total truth. It is not enough to say that the working class alone has the necessary force to realize its emancipation, as if the working class were the steam of an engine with intellectuals as mechanics and engine drivers. The reality is that it is the working class alone which is able to produce the organization, the forms and ideas which this emancipation demands."
"It is not the business of the Marxist organization to invent what Marx scornfully called recipes for the cookshops of the future. It is sufficient to watch carefully what the workers are actually doing, and what they are aiming at, and to draw the conclusions."
"Social upheavals bring out what already exists in society, even though only in embryonic form, or as aspiration. But they exist. It is the task of the Marxist organization to find them."
"Theory is the distillation of history and it is only by understanding the present that one is able to understand the past."
November 9, 2023
Facing Reality is an impressive work but limited by when it was released. The book has high highs and some low lows. The interventions into philosophy are often lacking and occasionally even reactionary. However, where the book shines is in its constant assertion of the importance of independent workers power and its description of the role Marxists can play in promoting that power.
I would recommend the book for those looking to break into Autonomism, but would warn them not to expect a book as useful or relevant as those written by later thinkers.
I would recommend the book for those looking to break into Autonomism, but would warn them not to expect a book as useful or relevant as those written by later thinkers.
November 29, 2012
I'm re-reading this now in the context of the Walmart strikes and the uptick in labor organizing going on today. I love the emphasis on worker-self activity and the embroyo of change, and find it rather unnuanced on the role of unions. Also, as much of the pamphlet was written with such an enthusiasm for the Hungarian Uprising, I'm interested in reading more about that history now.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews